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Spring in Montana

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Flathead Lake

Photograph by Chuck Haney, Alamy

Cherry trees bloom along Flathead Lake near Polson, Montana. Flathead Lake is the biggest freshwater body of water west of the Mississippi—at 28 miles long, up to 15 miles wide, and with 185 miles of shoreline.

Fly-Fishing

Photograph by Jonathan Irish

An angler casts a line in a river near Livingston, Montana. Fly-fishing is a popular sport in the state, especially in spring as the runoff begins to recede. After wading in, fly-fishermen gracefully cast their lines in long, looping figure eights. The fly finally settles on the water—an irresistible lure to trout scanning the flow for insects.

Wild Horse Race

Photograph by Allen Russell

During their turn in the Wild Horse Race—part of the annual Miles City Bucking Horse Sale—a team works to control a bucking horse. Two contestants try and subdue the animal while a third saddles and rides it around the ring. During the weekend-long event in Miles City, rodeo stock is bought and sold.

Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument

Photograph by Danita Delimont, Alamy

Grass spills its color across the badlands of the Missouri Breaks, a lonesome swatch of eastern Montana where the Great Plains roll to an abrupt and wild end. The Missouri River and its tributaries have cut deep paths through underlying sandstone and shale, fracturing the open country.

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park

Photograph by Jonathan Irish

The largest lake in Glacier National Park, Lake McDonald is ten miles long and 472 feet deep; a 2,000-foot-thick glacier gouged out its basin. Kootenai Indians, who performed ceremonies on the lake's shores, called the waters Sacred Dancing Lake.

Red Fox

Photograph by Jonathan Irish

A red fox is one of the residents of the Triple D Game Farm in Kalispell, Montana. The ranch's inhabitants—which include grizzlies, wolves, bobcats, and more—are animal models; the Triple D is a place for photographers to get close to trained wildlife.

Pompeys Pillar National Monument

Photograph by Jonathan Irish

A boardwalk winds around Pompeys Pillar National Monument, a rock formation in south-central Montana. William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame visited the pillar in 1806. He named the formation "Pomp's Tower" after his nickname for Baptiste Charbonneau, the infant son of his traveling companion, Sacagawea. "Pompy" means "little chief" in Shoshone, according to the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the monument.

Centennial Valley

Photograph by Joe Sohm, Getty Images

Montana's sparsely populated Centennial Valley runs along the border with Idaho. Ranchers own most of the 100,000 acres of private land in the valley, tucked in among the Centennial and Gravelly Mountains.

Grizzly Bear

Photograph by Grambo Photography, Corbis

One of Montana's top predators, the grizzly bear finds much of its food in meadows like this: nuts, berries, fruit, leaves, roots, and small mammals, like mice. Grizzlies are usually brown, though sometimes their fur is white-tipped, or grizzled.

Kootenai River Swinging Bridge

Photograph by Jonathan Irish

Not for the faint of heart, a swinging bridge crosses the Kootenai River near Libby, Montana. Just upriver are the Kootenai Falls, popular with kayakers.